History haunts Amherst Sandstone Village for annual fundraiser

AMHERST — Real and imagined ghost stories from Amherst's past were front and center at the annual "By My Lantern's Light" event in Sandstone Village. Led through the village by cloaked volunteers from Lorain's ACES program for at-risk youth, attendees went from station to station, hearing factual and "embellished" stories from Amherst's past. Amherst Historical Society director Sandy Kaiser said the Halloween program has been going on since the 1960s, with volunteers donning costumes and makeup to haunt the Harris Dute home or take visitors on a hay ride beside the Hickory Tree Grange one-room school house. When COVID-19 hit, the longstanding walk changed venues to first Crownhill Cemetery then Cleveland Avenue Cemetery before returning to its original home this year. "They're all kind of my favorite," Kaiser said of the stations dotting the property. "It's just interesting to hear and each year you may have some different people coming in, different volunteers — we have two that are semi-professional actors that work with us and they embellish it or put their twist on it and it's just really nice." Less factually accurate — but fun nonetheless — was a puppeteered story of Jack, who stayed out too late and, when walking home on a moonlit Halloween night through the village, saw ghosts, witches and several monsters dancing left and right, up and down, before disappearing when the adults came by. Rooted in history was a fatal three-train crash in 1916 — told on the original site of the wreckage. The crash left many dead — including five unidentified people buried at nearby Crownhill Cemetery — and several others maimed. Another story relating to Crownhill is the two horses buried there — a requirement by Charles and Jennie Schubert who gifted the land where the Sandstone Village sits. "It's just very fun and we love to central things around history as much as we can, because that's our mission is to keep history alive," Kaiser said. By My Lantern's Light raises funds for the Historical Society's continued operation, contributed to its about $100,000 annual budget alongside grants and other donations. The Amherst Historical Society's Sandstone Village is open 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays for its garage sales through mid-November. In December it will host a holiday lighting event. For more information on the Historical Society, including to schedule tours of the Village, call (440) 988-7255 or email office@amhersthistoricalsociety.org. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.